


Unanswered

by sxetia



Category: Persona 3
Genre: AU, Alternate Ending, Angst, Epilogue, F/M, Gen, Hurt/Comfort, Post-Game, The Answer, What-If, gainax ending, healing is not magical, implied PTSD, implied major character death
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-12-10
Updated: 2019-12-10
Packaged: 2021-02-26 04:47:31
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 427
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21747775
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/sxetia/pseuds/sxetia
Summary: If you could turn back time, would you?
Relationships: Arisato Minato/Aigis, Iori Junpei & Takeba Yukari, Persona 3 Protagonist/Aigis, Shiomi Sakuya/Aigis, Yuuki Makoto/Aigis
Comments: 1
Kudos: 42





	Unanswered

“You know, I had a dream that you died.” 

Yukari voices her thought with an uncanny levity, dissonant with the morbidity of her statement. A chuckle rings out as fanfare to a flippant smile on her face, as if her statement carried far less weight. Her words elicit a flabbergasted groan from Junpei, who releases his chopsticks to let them crash onto a bed of rice. 

“Aw, _c’mon,_ haven’t we heard enough about **death?** All we heard for an entire year was _death this, death that._ Let’s try’n focus on _living_ now, all right...?” 

His reaction instantly sets off Yukari, who furrows her brow and retorts with her own furious attempt at justification. “Don’t cut me off like that...! I was going somewhere with it, it’s something funny.”

“What’s so funny about death, huh?” 

And with that they’re off, bickering as always while Aigis and Minato are left to watch. 

There’s a little smile on Minato’s face, amused by his friends acting so endearingly in-character — but all of a sudden it drops, eyes widening and jaw hanging ajar as if he suddenly recalled a terrible truth. Something about Yukari’s remark and Junpei’s reaction, something about the combination of the two. The memory lingers in his mind’s eye for a fraction of a second before it’s gone again, and he promptly re-assumes his practiced blank. 

He silently thanks causality for the fact that Junpei and Yukari are too busy clawing at one another’s throats to have noticed the momentary lapse in his facade. Moments like these are becoming more and more frequent, dissociative spells where his body and soul seem to lack synchronization. 

Aigis notices, of course. She always does.

Too many nights spent panicking as he falls asleep at her side, too many scenarios replaying in her head in which he never wakes up. Too many obsessive grazes of her fingertips against his chest to ensure that his heart is still beating, too many hours spent staring blankly into nothing as she struggles to remember her sister’s face. 

Minato looks over at her, silently begging for the reassurance only she can provide. She feigns a doting smile and squeezes his hand, head affectionately tilted to the side. He re-assumes that little smile, and in an instant all doubt seems to vanish. 

It’s all worth it to see that smile again. Aigis silently hopes that she made the right decision. 

She glances at the television, the weather report going through its routine as the announcer recites his script. 

_”Tatsumi Port Island’s weather forecast for Thursday, April 1, 2010...”_

**Author's Note:**

> I’ve always liked the idea of an alternate ending to The Answer in which Aigis turns back time and successfully saves the protagonist — but I’m also very interested in the idea that defying fate isn’t so cut and dry, and that the both of them suffer some side effects spiritually and emotionally from the whole ordeal.


End file.
